We hear all the time about diet and exercise really changing very little for maintenance. No problem! What I eat is what I eat and how I exercise will likely only intensify. Bring it on!!

But sodium? I've been paranoid about it this entire journey. I rarely eat out, which is a good thing. It's not the calories I worry about, it's the sodium. I hate retaining water. Most of the time there's not a darn thing I can do about it, especially with the lifting I do. But I can control my sodium intake.

Once I hit maintenance, I'll be starting to date. And dates take you out to eat. Again, I'm not concerned about the calories. I know what to order. But do you all relax your guard about the sodium and just ride out the fluctuations?

My blood pressure is low and I don't pay attention to sodium (other than knowing I'll gain three pounds after sushi night ). If the scale goes up and you know it's water retention -- so what?

Exactly. Just as how you expect the blip after the refeed day, expect the blip after the night out. Give it a couple of days and you are back to normal. Maintenance gives you a little leeway to enjoy the 'nicer' things foodwise and I intend to keep enjoying it.

Once I hit goal, I'll be ok with the temporary water weight gain...but not a moment before! Sorry, but I'm on a mission right now and the fluctuations would not be worth it for me mentally.

As everyone else said...it's only water...water that will be gone in 2-3 days, so it's really just a personal choice.

This is kind of what I thought too, and Joyfull, right. I can't handle the fluctuations, especially right now with these last 10 pounds! But my girlfriend has lost 95 pounds now and she hasn't cut out salt at all. She's rather heavy handed with the sodium and hasn't been afraid to eat out this whole time. If she took a week to drop the water weight I think she'd whoosh out six pounds! LOL! But it doesn't bother her because since it's always there, she doesn't see the fluctuation.

The new Food Pyramid now recommends no more than 1500 ml sodium per day. I am concerned about it. It's not just a matter of water retention, it brings a whole host of other health problems with it.

I'm not brushing off the issue of added sodium in our foods, but I know that I can't always match my day's food intake to the Food Pyramid. (And I'm not completely happy with the Food Pyramid anyway, or the way special interests & conflicting aims for the pyramid affect its building.) Sometimes, something is going to be out of whack. Since sodium is ubiquitous, that's usually the culprit. For instance, I can eat an Asian meal that would be completely government Food Pyramind approved in every other way, but the sodium component will put it off the charts. I am not going to be too upset if this happens infrequently.

I hate post-sodium weigh-ins. Still. I have to do a lot of talking to myself afterward, and take myself to task for my fixation on a number. When I get crazy about The Number, rather than checking all the other data inputs from my body (my general health, energy level, fit of clothing, weigh-ins on other days), that's when I find myself moving over the fine line between Rational Maintenance Behaviors and Eating Disordered Thinking. Alas for me it's a closely watched line. Sodium is not my friend in staying on the right side of it. It plays into my worst fears of ballooning back up suddenly & overnight; it makes the worst of my Magical Thinking appear to be true.

I heard this and IMO that's ridiculous- I can make my 2300 (I usually get around 1800ish) but to go down even more to below that?!

And when I eat out- FORGET IT- sodium is always at least 2500-3500 when I do that.

Pretty soon they'll be telling us to PULL salt from our bodies

Okay enough of my rant lol.

Fluctuations happen- your weight will always be at a range (ie 123-128) but what you can just make sure is for every day you go out to eat you eat clean for 2-3 days after till the fluctuation goes back down

I for one HATE sodium, I retain water like a BLOWFISH when I consume it, my mother is the same way, puffy eyes, face, hands, is where it is visible on us. I don't get my undies in a bunch over it, but I try & avoid it as much as possible. Mainly it's my meals away from home that do it to me (chinese, mexican) and even too much sugar will do it also, as the next day I sport the BLOWFISH look always after any consumption! No lie, believe me, it
ain't purdy!

Beerab, my grandpa lives in an assisted living facility where they serve low/no salt diets. He has always been very OCD about his healthy eating anyway. He does not use table salt. He became very ill because the man had NO salt in his diet. Some salt is a good thing! LOL! Most of us don't have to worry about going too low because salt comes in the strangest forms. But in a nursing home environment, not so much.

you know, something to keep in mind... the more you restrict sodium, the more sensitive you are going to become to it, does that make sense? If you allow moderate sodium as you are dieting down, then a larger amount of sodium wont cause such bad retention.... i understand this is not true for everyone, like those with medical issues related to sodium/high blood pressure... but sodium/potassium... tey are GOOD things.... i try and make sure i consume sodium... i will sprinkle a little salt or garlic salt on thigs, wont shy away from sodiu, unless its OUTRAGEOUS, like soy sauce lol

It's not sprinkling salt that's usually the problem though--it's the sodium in processed and canned foods. An eighth of a teaspoon of salt, which is more than you'd usually use on your food on the plate, contains around 300 mg sodium--IMO totally reasonable in the context of not eating sodium-laden foods.

Things that I need to watch sodium on routinely:

- Canned goods: Broth, tomatoes, beans. I look for low-salt; I rinse the beans; or I try to cook my own beans. Time does not always permit this, though. I think I'm doing pretty well when I cook from scratch, but it's harder for me to find the time to can my own tomatoes, make my own stock, and foresee all my bean-related needs to the point of soaking & boiling them way ahead of time.

- Recipes that call for soy sauce or parmesan cheese, since this isn't just adding salt, it's adding a very specific flavoring

- String cheese & Laughing Cow Wedges -- or if I forgo this & go to Murray's Cheese Shop, and get the good stuff like goat gouda or humboldt or smoked mozzarella it's still salty

- Store-bought hummus

This in my daily eating, rather than any restaurant-going.